The Real Origins Of The Gender Pay Gap--And How We Can Turn It Around

This table shows the anticipated first-year salaries of male and female undergrads. Could it show the start of the gender pay gap?

This morning I was taking my walk with my mother, a teacher, and we were talking about two hypothetical job candidates for a position at her middle school. Both young, equally qualified and energetic new teachers but with one key difference: gender.

“I would worry that the guy wouldn’t be able to earn enough to support a family,” my mom said, thinking of low starting salaries in her rural New Jersey district. “But I’d also worry that the girl would be taking time off to get married and have kids and we’d have to pay her through maternity leave which is rough on the budget, the kids and the rest of the staff.”

While the conversation was strictly in the realm of pretend, her concerns were real--and universal. And through no fault of my mother’s (because, to be fair, I did bait her into this conversation), the subtle sexism at play in employment or salary decisions for men and women began to get clearer. A male employee is considered a breadwinner who should be valued--even above his pay grade--where a woman is at many turns a liability. As a result, across industries and education levels, it shows in their paychecks. The median female wage in the U.S. is only 81% of the median male wage, and the gap only widens as women age.

It’s simply not fair.

See, as a young woman, the gender pay gap is one of the most difficult prejudices to wrap my stubborn and ambitious brain around. In unconscious or “benevolent” sexism (men should earn more to support young families) and blatant discrimination (women should be assigned lower-earning clients and accounts), it’s appalling--both as an employee and a professional watcher of this slice of the female condition. Finding the solution is critical; but with so many forces at work, identifying a single correctable element is frustrating, if not impossible, work.

But numbers from employer branding firm Universum tell a story that, if reinforced, might help to deliver the first blow in the battle to correct the pay gap. Interestingly enough, it’s an origins story: that the gender pay gap starts even before women collect their first paycheck. In its annual student survey, which looks at the outlook of undergrads and MBA candidates on their anticipated career opportunities, researchers ask students what they think they will earn in their first job out of school. Every year women report that their first paychecks will be roughly $7,000 less than their male classmates.

Among undergrad students surveyed from 321 universities in 2012, women anticipated an annual salary of $48,237. The guys in their class say they expected an income of just over $55,000. When discussing the salary gap then, particularly when we look at its origins, it’s becoming clear that the anticipation gap is a hurdle to overcome. undefined"This is something we struggle with every year when we look at these numbers," says Camille Kelly, vice president of employer branding at Universum. She points to sites like Glassdoor.com--where salary information by job title, industry and even company is readily available--and says she continues to be shocked by women's consistent underestimating.

Anticipated first-year salaries of MBA candidates.

To be fair, researchers at Universum say the anticipation gap has narrowed in recent years--although by a margin of just a few hundred dollars. Last year women expected to make $7,248 less than their male colleagues (to $7,056 in 2012). This narrowing margin could possibly be attributed to women’s increasing dominance on college campuses. For years women have been enrolled at a much higher rate than men and according to 2010 Census numbers are on their way to erasing the historic male advantage in undergraduate education (current gap: .7%).

"They're not making up this information," Kally says of the students surveyed, "They're getting this information from somewhere. Whether its from women they know in the workforce, online resources,their expectations are informed." In fact--and what's even bleaker about Universum's numbers--is that women's expectations of first-year salary are "close to the mark" of what employers are actually paying--women, that is. Men, with their higher estimated are also "on point."

In the nation’s MBA programs, salaries are inflated and so is the disparity between men and women's first-year salaries. There, women are in the minority; female students currently earn only 34.8% of MBAS. Could a wider gap in degrees earned explain a chasm between anticipated income? 2012 female MBA candidates expect to earn nearly $11,000 less than their male classmates upon graduation, according to Universum data from 5,730 students at 80 universities. Kelly points to MBA students' more established networks within industries. While any student can go online and survey salaries for, say, Microsoft, online, MBA students have more readily available insights from their peers in the industries they've worked in. "When they have market relevant information about salaries on the MBA level," Kelly says, "They have much deeper networks to fact-check those insights against." Sadly, those insights have tempered women's expectations.

While Kelly and I agree that the numbers are depressing--and speak to the origins of the gender wage gap in a particularly bleak way--she looks for a silver lining for women by communicating the stats every chance she has. “We’ve showed the figures to the Forte Foundation,” she says, referencing one of the foremost organizations for advocating education and directing women towards powerful roles in business. “This survey acts as tangible support for the fact that women really do need a little more help in salary negotiations from the start.”

Negotiation, as we know, is key to the pay gap solution. First-year salaries regularly set the tone for lifetime earnings, and bell-ringers set the lifetime earning losses for women as high as $500,000 as a result of failing to negotiate for a higher entry-level salary. What sort of programs do you think would be the most beneficial to female students on the university level to encourage them to enter the workforce on an even playing field?